I caught the tail-end of a program the other night, in it they were talking about some SAS & SOE who had been killed during the closing stages of WW2 and the investigation which followed

something struck me as a little unusual, the grave stones of the SAS soldiers were in a small French graveyard but looked like the white commonwealth war grave headstones on them it had the winged dagger, name, rank and everything youd expect

it then went on to state

SPECIAL AIR SERVICE of ARMY AIR CORPS

was that a French misunderstanding of there role or were the SAS originally part of the AAC

I caught the tail-end of a program the other night, in it they were talking about some SAS & SOE who had been killed during the closing stages of WW2 and the investigation which followed

something struck me as a little unusual, the grave stones of the SAS soldiers were in a small French graveyard but looked like the white commonwealth war grave headstones on them it had the winged dagger, name, rank and everything youd expect

it then went on to state

SPECIAL AIR SERVICE of ARMY AIR CORPS

was that a French misunderstanding of there role or were the SAS originally part of the AAC

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Look at pictures of SAS in France, and you will see them wearing maroon berets with the SAS badge.

which I understood to mean they were paras, am i being really thick and missing something obvious

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Willing to be corrected but I was under the impression that when they left the desert for 1944 they were subsumed into the Airborne Division of the attack (makes sense, special AIR service) and thus rebereted from sandy to maroon (but had even previously worn white berets, briefly).

I caught the tail-end of a program the other night, in it they were talking about some SAS & SOE who had been killed during the closing stages of WW2 and the investigation which followed

something struck me as a little unusual, the grave stones of the SAS soldiers were in a small French graveyard but looked like the white commonwealth war grave headstones on them it had the winged dagger, name, rank and everything youd expect

it then went on to state

SPECIAL AIR SERVICE of ARMY AIR CORPS

was that a French misunderstanding of there role or were the SAS originally part of the AAC

Click to expand...

The original AAC was nothing like its modern lot, in the second big war it was an admin hq for airborne forces, so included GPR, SAS & Paras. also if meomery services right the RA Air OPs were too. So you'll find most commonwealth graves of those units will say AAC on them.

The original AAC was nothing like its modern lot, in the second big war it was an admin hq for airborne forces, so included GPR, SAS & Paras. also if meomery services right the RA Air OPs were too. So you'll find most commonwealth graves of those units will say AAC on them.

Great way to wind up paras by telling them they use to be AAC

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Not really; they seem to get on quite well, the obvious banter but on the whole a good bit of respect for eachother. Try and find a Para that doesn't want to see an AAC taxi/Apache when their in the shite.

Not really; they seem to get on quite well, the obvious banter but on the whole a good bit of respect for eachother. Try and find a Para that doesn't want to see an AAC taxi/Apache when their in the shite.

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I totally agree that they get on and most of it is banter, especially since Helmand 2006 where 3 Para and the AAC AH force did very well together.

However having met and worked with quite a few paras over the years i know what winds them up a treat!

things like;
1) Para use to be part of the AAC
2) The AAC are NOT crap hats, as we wear berets with all form of dress and that the GPR use to wear the maroon beret too
3) the true airbourne colours are Maroon red and cambridge blue
and finally number
4) (my favourite) there were NO paras at pegasus bridge but in fact the Oxs & Bucks LI (Glider troops who are now part of RIFLES), RE and GPR (who are now AAC) so there for the Paras stole the battle honour of P Bridge from Ox's & Bucks/RGJ/Rifles

PARA have their own right to display Peggy Bridge, they were the first replacements after the coup de main.

They were awarded the battle honour, not stolen as suggested.

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the Paras were not the first reinforcements, the Somerset LI who were a parachute roled (but not badged unit) and Lovet Commandos were the first and second on the bridge and neither of them units have the battle honour.

The paras took all airbourne battle honours, even if units at the battles were other capbadged but were in a glider/para role

Same reason PWRR do not have the battle honour from Arnham (won by the Royal Sussex Regiment who even earned a VC!)